A mum feared her Jet2 plane would go up flames after the captain dramatically announced there was a problem with the wing flaps in mid air.

Penie Craig, 49, was travelling back to Leeds Bradford Airport after a two-week break in Crete with her husband Michael, 54, and son Jaiden, 14.

The family, who live in Kingswood, Hull, were due to land at the West Yorkshire airport at 1.30am on Friday after an initial one-hour delay, but further complications on board forced the pilot to land the plane at Manchester Airport instead.

Mrs Craig thought something was wrong when the plane failed to land at the estimated time and an announcement saying the plane had to circle because of a “technical error on the flight deck”.

She said: “I hate flying as it is and after another 20 to 25 minutes, the captain came on again and said ‘unfortunately it’s to do with the flaps’.

“When you land, they help to slow you down but they weren’t working.

"They tried to think of something else but we were due to land at Leeds Bradford and the runway there wasn’t big enough, meaning we wouldn’t have slowed down quickly enough and we would have gone off the runway.”

The plane would have to land at Manchester Airport, 58 miles from their intended destination.

The captain said fire crews and ambulances would be there on arrival to douse any potential flames caused by the “fast and hard” landing.

Mrs Craig said: “He couldn’t use the flaps to slow down so as soon as we hit the ground he would have to break flat-out.

“It was just awful and my first thought was, ‘oh my God, the plane was going to set on fire’ but I had to be calm because my son was there.

“When we did land there were six fire engines on the runway and my son said he saw them spray the wheels with water because they were that hot from the pilot having to break so hard.”

The plane eventually landed safely at 3.30am – two hours later than scheduled – and passengers had to get on coaches back to Leeds Bradford.

The drama unfolded on a Jet2 flight bound for the UK (file image) (Image: SWNS.com)

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Mrs Craig added: “I’m not a great flyer. I’ve flown loads before but this time it was really stressful and I had to stop myself throwing up. It really has unsettled me and I’m glad I’m not going on holiday again too soon.”

Another Jet2 customer on the same flight said the pilot warned passengers he could not land the plane at Leeds Bradford Airport because the "speed reducing flaps on the wings were not working."

He said: "We had to prepare for a fast bumpy landing at speed and the emergency services would be there to follow us in as the wheels would be very hot.

"We were all very frightened. One passenger fainted and another was physically sick. We landed at a very fast speed and the brakes went on. It was very stressful and many were very emotional."

The budget airline firm said flight LS444 from Heraklion in Crete to Leeds Bradford had to go into a "holding pattern in order to assess a flap indication issue". This led to the plane having to land in Manchester.

A spokeswoman for Jet2 said: "The decision was taken to divert into Manchester Airport as a precautionary measure due to it having a longer runway to facilitate a smooth landing.

"The aircraft landed safely and onward transport was arranged for our customers back to Leeds. The safety of our customers is always our number one priority.”

This latest incident with a Jet2 plane comes days after another jet travelling from Faro in Portugal to Leeds Bradford was forced to make an emergency landing in Bordeaux when cabin pressures dropped on August 10.

On Thursday, another Jet2 plane was met with fire engines and ambulance crews on arrival after cabin pressures dropped again on another flight from Newcastle to Dalaman meaning that too had to make an emergency landing.